Brassbanned catches up with Michael Walker, President of the Victorian Bands League and one of the main organisers of the 2012 Australian Nationals.
Michael talks about what goes in to organising the competition - giving an outline of how the NBCA, VBL and Organising Committee interact.
This fascinating interview reveals exactly what it takes to put on a competition, and the hard work down by a number of volunteers to make it happen.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
[Music] good evening once again loyal internet viewers tonight we’re here with Michael Walker who’s president of Victorian bands League Michael how are you I’m well Tim how are you yeah I’m doing really well thanks thanks for asking and Michael tell us a little bit about your role in organizing the national championships this year as president of the
Victorian bands League does that mean you’re on the organizing committee is there an organizing committee and how is that all working out structurally yes there is an organizing committee uh I’m the chair of that organizing committee right uh it basically consists of the um executive counselors that are U have been nominated by the delegates uh to the executive
Council and each one of those has a portfolio um Ari mcus is uh the contest manager and then everyone else has various portfolios that uh and tasks to do to um hopefully make this a fantastic Nationals event yeah absolutely and we’re a week out now I guess um is everything sort of under control your confidence going to be a good contest
I’m hopeful it’s going to be a good contest um pretty confident yes we’ve got most of the bases covered now a lot of organizing with the um uh seel uh at Albert Park to uh make sure all of the venues and the various rooms are set up uh we’ve been working in partnership with generate events management to assist us with that uh and we think that um we’ve got everything pretty well scheduled out at this point in time a lot of work with the city of
Port Philip to ensure that the marching event go success morning the March is happening down through St kilder around Luna Park I think that’s a real CW to have it in such an iconic place in Melbourne yeah we’re pretty lucky to um uh get that particular location we did try for several locations but we’re very fortunate to um end up with the
March starting in the lower esplanad um up to the main entrance of Luna Park and then uh uh doing a right change of direction to head down kevl street towards the beach and we think it’s a great venue we hope that there’ll be plenty of local residents from the silder area out to have a look at the band especially if there’s good weather
I think there’ll be no excuse for them not to be there really well we’re hoping for good weather with all the organizing that’s gone into it we’re sincerely hoping it’s good weather definitely and tell me a little bit about Nationals from year to year I know each year it moves around in different state organizes it is there much
Handover from what happened last year in Adelaide or the year before in Hobart or is it sort of starting fresh from scratch each year when it gets to a new state no there is a certain level of Handover um uh as people may or may not be aware the nbca which is the national band Council of Australia
Australia are the owners of the national championships and they license it out to each state each year um us this year Adelaide last year Perth next year Perth next year I haven’t heard that one before that’s quite exciting a bit of a trek across the nullor for a couple of bands yes hopefully a few of the Victorian bands would like to head out west and hasn’t been there for a long long time not since the
U mid 80s has it been there so they’re looking forward to that but um it’s a um licensed out to each particular State the state puts their hand up for it they have to put a proposal in of what they’re going to do so is it a bit like bidding for the Olympics all the states get around and sort of say
I want it this year we’re going to do this that the other or is it bit more organized than that it’s a bit more scheduled than that and they try and share it around state by state uh but ultimately you still have to um put in a um a proposal of how you’re going to run the event uh and then when the uh the council will have a
National Conference every year and around about July and it’s detailed then at that point in time what’s going to happen where the venues are we get inspections of the venues so there’s a lot of work that has to go out and you basically kick off the work a particular state would have to kick off the work in preparation for some 80 months out um for preliminary work in identifying venues
Etc and then the hard work starts probably about 6 to n uh months out uh with uh an absolute pus of work in probably the last three months yeah sure and financially it must cost a lot of money to put on a national championships does each state take on that responsibility year to year or do the National
Council sort of oversee that somehow well we had a bit of a coup last year where um Yamaha um put forward a sponsorship over the next three years with options congratulations Yamaha you’re doing a good thing and so from that point of view um each state that puts on the Nationals gets a grant if you like from uh
Yamaha as the principal sponsor of $10,000 uh and then it’s up to the state uh has to pay for the rights to hold it which is $25,000 and then from there it’s about getting uh marketing happening uh getting people to um volunteer how are the volunteers going you still looking for volunteers for next week we’re reasonably well placed but if anyone does still wish to volunteer we’re always looking for extra hands on deck and to contact the vbl they should send an email to uh vbl uh at um v.org that’s flashing up on the screen right now in case you didn’t hear that fantastic no
That that’d be excellent um we do have quite a number of volunteers that have put their hands up but we could always do it a few more it just takes the load off people having to do all day every day um but to conduct the Nationals and this is the first time that I’ve been a of such an event but my estimation is that a state really needs to budget somewhere in the vicinity of between 120 and $150,000
W uh I don’t think many people would know that it’ be that expensive to put on the event but it’s a fairly expensive exercise by the time you hire venues and venues can be in the order of $50,000 plus dollar um and then you’ve got all your payment for adjudicators and and and a lot of ancillary stuff that gets paid out so is income generated mainly through bands registering to play at the
Nationals and then ticket sales on the day and any sponsorship that comes along the way is that about it they’re the main sources of revenue we try and get sponsorship uh trade stools um provide some of the revenue certainly um pre- ticket sales the registration of the bands and then ticket sales over the weekend yeah it’s a lot to plan and a lot to organize but yeah fingers crossed next weekend goes really well
I think it will ke thing is that um we of course hoping it goes well and we’ve done a lot of planning and preparation to ensure that it does go well but the key amongst everything is that everyone that comes along and we’ve got uh in the auto 70 odd bands and we’ve got something like 435 solo and ensembles entries for the competition that everyone that comes along has a thoroughly enjoyable time and goes away and so it was a pretty good weekend for um brass banding and concert banding in
Australia definitely as long as everyone has fun and makes some good music then I think it’s a success absolutely thanks very much for Jo us thanks team [Music]
